Abstract
A speculation on the evolution of the terrestrial atmosphere from a comparative planetological view is presented. The primitive terrestrial atmosphere appears to have been formed by sudden degassing from the interior at the time of accretion. This model is consistent with the data on the atmospheric composition of Mars and Venus recently obtained by the space probes. Water condensed to form oceans, carbon dioxide dissolved in water to combine with calcium, and hydrogen escaped to space. Residual carbon monoxide and nitrogen formed the primitive atmosphere with a surface pressure of a few atmospheres. By absorbing the solar ultraviolet radiation at the Cameron bands of CO, carbon suboxide and its polymer would have been produced, similar to that in the Venus ultraviolet haze. The C 3O 2 polymer produced in the atmosphere might have precipitated in the primitive ocean to form a highly concentrated solution of organic compounds. CO and C 3O 2 polymer in the atmosphere might have kept the surface temperature of the primitive Earth above the freezing point in the low luminosity period of the sun, due to greenhouse effects.
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